Electric railway



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

D. E. KIMBALL. ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

No.489,563.. Patented Jan.10,'1893.

' Q WITNESSES:

, INVENTO]? x r ATTORNEX.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

DANIEL EDSON KIMBALL, OF TOPEKA, KANSAS.

. ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 489,563, dated January10, 1893.

Application filed January 11, 1892. Serial No.417,657. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL EDsoN KIM- BALL, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing in Topeka, county of Shawnee, and State of Kansas, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Electrical Railways, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to electrical railways and has particular referenceto those systems in which the conductor supplying current to thevehicles is located beneath the car, either igng conduit or upon thesurface of the road- The object is to provide a system in which therewill be no exposed live conductors along the road-way, except at pointsimmediately adjacent to the vehicle. This broad idea I understand to beold, but my invention consists in the special mechanism foraccomplishing that object in a most efficient and simple manner.

The invention will be specifically described and pointed out in theclaims which follow.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents the plan of theroad-way; Fig. 2 a transverse section of the same taken on line ac, as,of Fig. 1. This figure also shows a portion of the vehicle; Fig. 3 is asection taken on line y, y, of Fig. 1; and Fig. at is a section taken online 2, z, of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a conventional view of the car andportions connected with the road bed.

A A represent the two rails of the track upon which the vehicles run.Midway between these rails there is located a continuous box B which maybe sunk in the ground flush with the surface, or resting upon the same.Through the middle of this box a continuous electric conductor 13 isledand thoroughly insulated by being embedded in insulating material or inany other approved Way. This conductor is not directly exposed at anypoint, but at intervals it is provided with metallic offsets 17 againstwhich the inner end of rock shafts O bear. Along the upper surface ofthe conduit B is placed a sectional conductor B in the form of a flatstrip, as shown. The sections are separated and insulated from eachother and present a fiat surface over which a contact device,represented by M, may slide and convey current therefrom to the vehicle.Each section of this conductor has a circuit maker and breaker, whichconsists of a rock shaft 0, before mentioned. This shaft, as beforestated isin constant connection with the main conductor B. It extendstransversely across the road-bed from the conductor B to a point nearone of the rails. Its outer end is insulated from its inner end byan,interposed length of insulating material 0; the bearings o c of theshaft are located near the ends and the inner end is equipped with tworadial wings c a standing at opposite angles. Directly above the wingsthere is a projection bfrom the sectional conductor B which stands inthe path of movement of said wings so that when the latter are swungaround by the movement of the shaft one of them will make contact withthe projection b and establish an electrical connection between the mainB and a strip of the sectional conductor B The outer end of shaft 0projects into a conduit C formed just inside of one rail'A and parallelto it, where it is fitted with a cross-bar 0 the lower end of whichcarries a weight 0 and the upper end is pivotally attached to a bar D.This bar extends through the conduit 0 and is about equal in length toone of the sections of conductor B but it extends from the middle of oneof said sections to the middle of the next, at which points the shafts Oare located; the ends of the bar are curved downward slightly as shown.The normal position of the bar D is up close to the slot in the conduitwhere it is held by the weights 0 which tend to maintain the cross-barsc in vertical positions.

The collector M is mounted upon the carat about midway of its ends andnear each end of the car is fixed an arm E carrying a roller 6 at itslower end which projects into the conduit O a little past the plane ofthe bars D. As the car proceeds along the road-way the first roller 6,strikes the curved ends of abar, forces it forward and downward and thenrides along its upper surface. Before it reaches the other end the rearroller e passes upon the bar and continues to hold it down after thefirst has passed on to the next bar. The bar in making this forward anddownward movement causes the two shafts 0 connected with it to rock andbring one of the wings c on each into contact with their respectiveprojections 12' 011 the sectional conductor, thereby supplying the twosections of conductor beneath the car with current which is conveyed tothe motor on the car through the collecting device M. When both rollerse e have passed off a bar D, gravity acting upon weights 0 swings thebar up to its normal position and breaks the circuit of the sectionalconductor.

The rock shafts will be suitably housed in boxes as shown or in anyother desired manner to protect them from the Weather. I do not confinemyself to any particular construction of either conduit, nor to theconstruction of the sectional conductor. Two wings c are provided inorder that the vehicles may run in both directions on the same track.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In an electric railway, the combination of a continuous insulatedconductor, a bare sectional conductor, a series of rock shafts arrangedat right angles to the continuous conductor, said rock shafts beingdirectly connected at one end with the continuous conductor and theother end projecting into a conduit, a crank arm on the end in theconduit, a circuit closing arm carried by the rock shaft and adapted tomake direct connection with the sectional conductor and a device carriedby the vehicles for turning the crank on the rock shaft for the purposeset forth.

2. In an electric railway, the combination of the main and sectionalconductors, a series of rock shafts and switches between the main andsectional conductors operated by the rock shafts, cranks on the ends ofthe rock shafts, the cranks on the successive pairs of rock shafts beingjoined by a bar pivoted thereto and. a device carried by the vehiclesco-operating with the bar to close said switches.

3. In an electric railway the combination of a plurality of rock shaftscontrolling circuit makers and breakers, a weighted crosshead on eachrock shaft, bars, as D, pivotally connected respectively with thesuccessive pairs of cross-heads, a device carried by the vehiclesarranged to move said bar thereby rocking the shafts and operating thecircuit makers and breakers.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

DANIEL EDSON KIMBALL.

Witnesses:

CHARLES MoCLINTooK, H. E. BLOUNT.

